First Experiment with Gandhigiri

A small incident that taught me the biggest lesson of my life.

I was on a train back home. As usual, I had walked down from my seat to the door. (I love standing in the door in a train) I noticed a fellow standing in the common area nearby with a packet of baked groundnuts. He was throwing the nut covers on the floor, littering the area.

A supporter of railway's cleanliness drive, I asked him (in a bit stronger voice) not to do it. The fellow was surely unimpressed and backfired saying "What do you have to do with that?"

Defeated, I left the matter on its own, and turned back towards the door to enjoy my time, singing a song. I realised the song I was singing was 'Bande me that dum' from the same movie (Lage Raho Munnabhai) that coined the term Gandhigiri. Remembering a scene from
the movie, where the fellow is told to clean the littered wall, I decided to give it a try.

Committed to keep the floor clean, I turned back and started throwing those covers out of the train without any aversion or hatred towards the fellow.(There was no dustbin) I later realised that what had worked was not my act but the fact that I had shown no aversion. Even a slight aversion towards him or a try to make him feel guilty would have evoked his ego and he might not have had an open mind to understand and correct his mistake. Neutrality is the key.

Our effort to make others accept mistakes is usually to satisfy our own ego of supremacy.

After cleaning the floor, I was back in the door. After few minutes, the same fellow came to me, with a paper packet in which he had collected all covers. He threw all covers out of the door, and gave a smile suggesting his realisation of mistake.

Soon after I found him along with his 1-year old daughter at my seat. I had a good time playing with the child and chatting with this fellow, who told me he was a trader from a small town, though neither of us found a need to discuss the event.

I was quite sure that he shall never litter public places again.